Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 55748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 279(@200wpm)___ 223(@250wpm)___ 186(@300wpm)
“We’re going on a hike?”
He looks out the window. “Something like that.”
I press my body close to his, resting my cheek against his chest. “Your heart is pounding like crazy. What’s going on? Why are you being so mysterious?”
He takes my hands, kissing me in that heated way that sets every inch of my body ablaze. Our frantic kissing takes us to the bed. I fall back, pulling him on top of me, opening my legs and wrapping them around him. He groans and presses his groin against me, his manhood hardening quickly like it always does for me, his lips all over my neck as he moans.
“We’ve got about an hour,” he says between kisses.
“Until what?”
“The helicopter arrives.”
“The helicopter.”
“You heard me, a stór.”
I’m breathless as the helicopter flies over rolling Irish hills, the scenery so majestic I feel like I’m inside a painting. I stare down at the mountains and the greenery and the sheer beauty of it all, a borderline religious feeling coming over me as I struggle to take it all in. When I look up, I laugh. Killian is staring at me.
“You’re missing it all,” I say through the headset.
“I prefer to watch you. I want to remember the look on your face, the enthusiasm, the joy. It makes it all worth it.”
“I love you so freaking much.”
“I love you, angel.”
“But don’t be offended if I want to look at the scenery, okay?”
He grins. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
I look down at the hills, something tugging at the back of my mind, a thought I can’t quite place. When the helicopter descends, the setting sun angles into the interior, flooding it with light. The helicopter lands in a field seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Once the blades have stopped, Killian unstraps himself and opens the door, climbing down.
I take off my straps, giggling when he grabs me and lowers me to the lush green earth. “You make me feel so small,” I tell him. “So weightless.”
“Call me cheesy, but you make me feel like I could float away, too.”
I look around the open field. There’s a hill nearby and a mountain close behind that. That déjà vu feeling hits me again.
“What now?” I ask.
“Now, we walk. Or I could carry you if you prefer…”
I laugh, dancing away from him when he leans down to pick me up.
“My bad,” he says. “I shouldn’t forget how independent you are.”
“I’m feeling pretty freaking dependent lately. But not in a bad way.”
“How about we compromise and hold hands?”
I take his hand, smiling as we walk together. As the surroundings get darker, he takes a flashlight from his pocket and switches it on, holding it steadily so the light guides our path. Every so often, he glances down at me, a smirk on his face.
We crest a small hill and walk toward the entrance to the mountains. There’s a mini sort of valley here, which looks like it leads somewhere deeper.
“Why do you keep looking at me like that?” I ask.
“Like what?” he says innocently.
“Like I’m missing someth…”
I stop talking. I stop walking. My heart beats with crazy speed and significance. A gasp escapes me as I turn in a small circle, memories finally returning to me.
“How did it take me this long?” I whisper.
“Maybe it was the helicopter ride… you were on foot last time.”
“This is where it happened. This is where you found me.”
“Where we landed – that was where I found you. This, my lucky charm, is where we were when the storm hit.” He loops his arm over my shoulder and gestures with the flashlight toward the miniature valley. “Do you remember those crags?”
“The cave where we took shelter… it’s in there.”
“That’s where we’re going,” he says warmly.
“Why?”
“Because that’s where this began,” he says. “I didn’t know it then, couldn’t know it then, never would’ve dreamed it… but that’s where fate first touched us.”
A heady sense of romance grips me, shimmers moving all over my body, making me feel warm and tingly.
“Isn’t it going to be dark in there?”
“Don’t worry,” he says with a playful, teasing note in his voice. “I’ll keep you safe…”
I laugh and slap his arm. “I can take care of myself.”
“I know you can,” he replies seriously. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll ever stop looking out for you.”
Now that I remember where we are, the memories rush in quickly. “I remember leaning against that rock when you were tying your shoelace. I was scared, but also… I felt weirdly safe. With you.”
He grins. “Do you remember asking me if giants lived here? When I asked you why, you said because some of these big rocks looked like chairs.”
“Yeah, I do!” My head rushes. “This is crazy.”
We keep walking, hand in hand, letting the memories infuse us. When I see the light shining at the end of the dark valley, my heart skips. Fairy lights ring the entrance to the cave, glittering, beckoning. There are more lights woven around the rocks closer to us, guiding the way.